Sunday O'Clock
by Elenhin
Summary: The boys have a tough nut to crack and they find themselves working around the clock, but no one is sure which clock… ATF      One Shot


**Author's Note: **This is a one shot with the Magnificent Seven. Why is Casey mad at JD, the question was raised by several readers after my last story, and this is the explanation. Follows behind Ya Never Know Until Ya Check.

**Warning**: _The warning is placed here for vinsmouse, who wanted a spew warning here, claiming it might be a bad idea to drink while reading the funnier parts. So please keep in mind that drinking any kind of beverage while reading this, might be hazzard'ous to the health of your screen. _

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Magnificent Seven, I do not make any money on this. If I did, I would be working my way towards owning them… No harm will ever come to them in my care, that not some of Nathan's skunk juice can't fix….

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><p><strong>Sunday O'Clock<strong>

Chris peered at the face of his watch, trying to figure out what time it was, normally that wouldn't be a difficult task but it grew harder and harder as the day grew longer. The investigation was moving forward and so were they, but it was moving forward at such a rapid pace there was no room for them to take even five minutes to catch their breath.

Surprisingly JD, their own energizer bunny had been the first to wear down. He was like an endless bundle of energy most of the time, but when the battery wore out he crashed no matter where he was. Buck had entered the office, chatting as usual and shooting question at his young roommate while Josiah shook his head in amusement. Ezra soon managed to quietly collect bets from Josiah and Nathan, and finally after nearly fifteen minutes Vin spoke up.

"Aw hell Buck, why don't ya just shut up huh?" he sighed. "Kid's not paying any attention to ya anyhow, an' I'm getting a damn sight tired of yer yapping."

Josiah wasn't really surprised that he had spoken up, Vin was normally the most patient one of them but paperwork was always a struggle for him with his dyslexia and when tired it was naturally harder for him. He needed to be able to focus on it and that could be hard to do if Buck really got going.

"What the heck JD, I told you to listen, didn't I?" Buck frowned as he approached his young friend.

"He's been asleep ever since just before you entered," Nathan pointed out.

"What?" Buck moved over and took a closer look, they were right. The computer genius was deeply asleep at his desk. Propped into his sitting position by an elbow on the desk and the hand on his chin. "Why the hell didn't you tell me?" he demanded.

"Reckon they wanted to see how long it'd take ya to notice," shrugged Vin. "But I need ta git this done. That damn cowboy in there is riding my ass on it an' I'd be much obliged if ya'd shut up so I could git it done."

"Sure thing Junior, just give me a minute to wake this one up," Buck grinned. Standing behind JD he contemplated the best way to do it, finally he gave a loud holler just behind him.

JD cried out in surprise as he snapped awake, nearly falling to the floor in surprise as he tried to figure out what was going on.

"Buck!" he cried as he realized what was going on, his voice rising into a high pitch.

"You can't sleep now, we got work to do," told him Buck. "If you try sleep like that, you'll just make it worse for yourself. Go on, get up and do something instead."

"I'm waiting for this file transfer to finish, and it's going to take a while," objected JD as he straightened his chair.

"If you have nothing to do until then, why don't you run and get us all something to eat?" suggested Josiah. "I'm starving, but I can't get away right now."

"Bring back doughnuts," requested Vin from his desk where he was trying to get his focus back on his work. "Lots of doughnuts."

"And some fruit," ordered Nathan. "It's the best thing, it will give us all back some energy."

"Alright, I'll see what I can find," JD promised as he left. There was a grocery store close to the federal building and it didn't take him long to find what he wanted there. It wasn't the first time one of them went on an errand to it. He soon returned with a paper sack filled with groceries, fruits like Nathan had requested, doughnuts, some chocolate, soda and a few other items. Walking a tour around the bullpen he offered everyone the doughnut box, but also dropped an apple and an orange on every desk, an extra apple on Nathan's as he only took one doughnut while everyone else opted for two. He was glad he had gotten two dozens, knowing from experience that one dozen didn't get far around the seven men.

Chris had come out of his office long enough to get his share, ask if anyone was done yet, and then disappeared again.

The next one to go down was Nathan in spite of his assurance that the fruit would keep them alert and energized. He started dozing when Chris called them into the conference room to discuss the new evidence. Josiah simply shook him awake and no one really said anything about it. Chris could easily understand that they were tired, he was too, and had been forced to shake himself awake a few times earlier. He was hoping that things would quiet down enough that he could allow them all a couple of hours sleep, but by the looks of it that wasn't about to happen anytime soon. They would simply have to make do the best they could.

At least after the meeting was over they got to go out of the office for a bit. That shook everyone awake. Even if it was just a quick run to get some evidence and check out a location it was better than nothing and seemed to wake them all up.

The effect didn't last long though, and as soon as they were back to the office Chris found himself forced to wake Josiah up, and urge JD to try and stay awake. The grocery bag with snacks was since long empty.

"Vin, why don't you go make some coffee?" Chris sighed as he looked at the tired men in the office. Ezra seemed to still be doing pretty good, but he was used to staying up for long hours and then sleep just as long afterwards.

"Sure cowboy," Vin stifled a yawn and stretched as he stood, giving a content groan when his back popped. "I could use a mug, reckon the rest of ya can too."

"Bring it brother, hot and strong," urged Josiah.

"Chris, the way he makes it it's a health hazard," Nathan sighed. "You want to poison us all?"

"It'll keep you all awake, and that's all I care about right now," told him Chris. He wasn't looking forward to it himself. Vin brewed cowboy coffee if he had ever seen anyone do it. He had heard the line 'toss in a horse shoe, stands up straight, coffee's ready,' only in Vin's coffee the horse shoe wouldn't just stand up straight, it would be floating on the surface… He wasn't looking forward to it at all but nothing else would work for them. They needed something with an extra kick, and the coffee would be that, for everyone but Vin since he lived on the stuff. Well, he'd likely dump enough sugar in it to give himself a kick.

Once the coffee was made Vin passed around the mugs and though they groaned and complained about the taste they drank it and it seemed to give everyone a boost, or so he thought until he shook himself awake from a nap and found he wasn't the only one who had dropped out. Buck had pushed his chair over to JD's desk to look at something on his screen and while JD was talking Buck was softly snoring.

"We've all been going since yesterday, they ain't going to last much longer," Vin told him, looking up from his own screen. "Ez the only one holding it together right now."

"Those all night poker games finally being good for something, huh, Ezra?" teased Chris as he noted that the undercover agent still looked fairly fresh.

"That might very well be Mr. Larabee," Ezra told him, brushing some invisible speck of dust from his shirt.

"Never mind, just wake Buck up, will you?" Larabee gave them a pleading look. "I don't care how you do it, but I got a call from Travis. He needs to go pick up a witness."

"You think he's in any shape for that?" Nathan frowned thoughtfully.

"He'll just go down to the lobby and pick him up," Chris shrugged as he noticed that JD was trying to get Buck awake, and alert. "Mr. Henry, tell him," he ordered before he disappeared into his office again.

Getting the witness up to their interrogation room was easy, getting him to co-operate not so easy. He was a very self concerned man who only cared about what he himself got out of anything. He was not willing to comply with anything before he was given what he called 'securities'.

The clock ticked its way into another day and Chris sighed as he walked into the bull pen and found Vin with a steaming cup of coffee beside him, and his head pillowed on his arms.

"Didn't want to wake him," Josiah told him, his own coffee in his hand. "I figured as worn out as he is he might be a bit disoriented, might not know it's us."

"I'd prefer to let him sleep, but I need him," Chris sighed. "That woman seemed to take to his Texas accent, he'll likely get more out of her than I will." He knew what Josiah meant about not wanting to wake their sniper, if he was disoriented Vin might still snap into a defence mood if he was waken suddenly. If the wrong person touched him he might throw a punch. It only happened very rarely but most of them knew better than to take a chance. It was a lot easier for Chris to do it so waking him was mostly left to him.

"Come on Cowboy," Chris gently dropped a hand on his arm. "Time to wake up, nap times over."

"Aw hell," came the quiet groan. "What time is it?"

"About 5," he decided after a glance at his watch.

"Ain't talking about that," Vin rubbed at his eyes. "Is it Friday o'clock or Saturday o'clock?"

"Saturday," he smiled amused. Trust Vin to say something you just had to laugh at even when you thought you had just fried your brain.

"Aw hell," he sighed again.

"Why don't you drink that coffee you've got there?" suggested Chris.

"Had one mug already, it ain't strong enough anymore," still he gulped it down. "Feels like I might as well be drinking water."

"I just had some, combination between road tar and acid," Josiah sighed. "If it isn't working anymore, you really need some sleep."

"Soon," Chris promised them. "According to the boys downstairs we'll be done in five to six hours if we can keep it together. Listen up everybody, I want you all to go down to the gym, run a couple of laps and then grab a cold shower. Think you can mange another five hours that way?"

"I think we might be able to manage the task," Ezra decided as he stood. He wasn't looking so fresh anymore. His suit was rumpled and a shower would probably help refresh him. They all stored some clothes and towels in their lockers in the changing room connected to the gym and so they headed down there. Ran a few laps, had a shower and brushed their teeth, all helping them to feel more human again.

The time frame they had been told to expect turned out to be more than a little wishful thinking and Chris groaned when he noticed they were several hours past it. Mary Travis appeared at the office with a couple of thermoses with some tea that she told them would work wonders, and it did, for about an hour.

Nettie Wells came later with another home made brew, lemonade of some sort Chris thought, but it was more than invigorating. She had also brought a basket full of food for them. Once she had been told how long they had been working she was determined to make certain they were fed and they found themselves feasting on fried chicken, mashed potato, coleslaw and very tasty salad. For dessert she had brought both apple pie and chocolate cake, smiling and saying if nothing else the sugar rush might help them keep going a while longer. She also helped them where she could, even if it wasn't very much.

Buck kept himself awake by throwing random paper balls at any target that looked promising. Ezra quickly learned to ignore them and work around them as he tended to be a favourite target. JD had his headphones on but the music he played was so loud that they could all more or less hear it anyway. Josiah and Nathan was in the middle of some discussion and even from his office Chris heard the loud crashing sounds when Vin became frustrated and slammed his fist down onto the keyboard. It was possible that the gadget wouldn't survive the case, but it was a fairly sturdy piece of equipment, it had survived several bad cases already, and if it broke JD could get him a new one quite easily.

He had been standing by the filing cabinet, nodding off again when a loud curse woke him up and he looked towards Vin.

"What's going on?" he yawned.

"They can't do this to us," Vin declared angrily. "The bastards."

"Who's a bastard?" he was way too tired to deal with this.

"Our brother just realized it was by his reckoning 'Sunday o'clock'," Josiah stretched. "He's been kind enough to inform us that it's inhumane treatment and what was it, against the Geneva Convention?"

"Yeah," Vin nodded angrily. "If the bastards want the work done, they could do it themselves."

"Hang in there Vin, it's going to come down soon," Chris promised him. "We got the information, we got the evidence, we only need the man now. Team 3 has been dispatched together with a SWAT team. It's going to end any minute now."

As he finished speaking his phone rang and he headed to his office to pick up, Vin hot on his heels as the younger man demanded to be informed if they could cut it off, and he wasn't about to have to wait even a second or so he informed Larabee on the way.

Half an hour later Orrin Travis entered the bullpen belonging to team 7 ATF. He knew they had been called and informed that it was over, the man had been taken down and everything left was now formality. He just wanted to congratulate them himself, and thank them for hanging in. They hadn't left the office for days, and he had asked his secretary to schedule some leave for them. They would need it, a week off to rest and re-charge their batteries would be what they needed, and he would make certain that they got it.

He smiled as he saw their undercover agent first, Ezra Standish was sitting at his desk, his arms crossed in front of him and his chin resting on his chest. He slept quietly and with his shirt and trousers still mostly smooth, he would never have expected less from the man.

Josiah Sanchez started snoring loudly just then, and Nathan Jackson stirred in his seat. The team healer had fallen asleep with a half eaten apple in his hand, and his upper body sprawled over his desk.

The profiler who was snoring was leaning back in a chair that creaked ominously with his weight, and his head had fallen back which was likely how he came to be snoring so loudly.

JD Dunne had scooted his chair over to Buck Wilmington's desk and was, perhaps not that surprisingly, using the older man's computer screen as his pillow. It looked for all the world like they had been discussing something and he had dropped out in the middle of the discussion. The older man had simply tilted forward where he sat, his head resting on a stack of files that might not have made the best pillow, but seemed to be doing that service at the moment.

The team leader and sniper were not in sight and so he continued into the office at the other end of the bullpen. He saw them both immediately and it was a sight for a father's heart he decided. Chris had apparently dragged the phone to the couch where they both sat, and he still had one hand on the receiver though it had slipped somewhat from his lax fingers. He was leaning back and had one hand on the leg of the sniper beside him. The sharpshooter had obviously been sitting beside him when he took the call. He had slipped over sideways and was now pillowing his head on Chris' arm, seemingly content to stay there and it was a testimony of the closeness between the men how Larabee had moved a protective hand to him even as he slept. It was all the sweeter a sight because the younger man had curled up somewhat, pulling his legs closer so that he truly looked like a son, or a younger brother, making use of the older man for his pillow.

Grabbing a coat that hung from a peg behind the door he did his best to cover them booth with it, smiling when neither one of them stirred and he had never thought he would be able to move freely around these two when they were both asleep. For a moment he though a sleepy blue eye opened to check what was going on, but a murmur from the man beside him soon put him back to sleep.

When his secretary had called down to them to check the progress he had been informed about some rather interesting time measurements they seemed to be using. She had told him it was nearly impossible to get a given hour from them. They would either tell her they'd have that information as soon as they themselves were able to procure it, Ezra. Or, when the spirits in charge decide we need to know, Josiah. When we have it we will share it, Nathan. About an hour, windows time, JD, and he still wasn't sure what windows time was, but apparently about one hour windows time was three hours, or something like it. Buck had attempted to set up a date with her instead, Chris had replied with a short answer and a glare she declared she had felt across the phone, and Vin had muttered something about Saturday o'clockish. She had informed him that he seemed to be under the delusion that the clock used weekdays now.

Smiling to himself he grabbed the notebook from the desk and started writing a message for them. _'Good job, we got the result we needed. Get some rest boys, and don't bother coming back before next week o'clock. Travis.'_ He hoped they would understand that. If they had indeed been measuring time that way they should, if not they would be sure to call and ask and he would explain it to them. For now he decided he would just let them sleep and so he slipped out quietly.

**The End **

_Please review, The Cricket is hungry..._


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